Ilion High School - Class of 1962

Herkimer Evening Telegram - June 25, 1962

Valedictorian Says Duty Is Highest Aim

Article 2

Source pdf file is here Herkimer NY Evening Telegram 1962 01658.pdf

Herkimer Evening Telegram - Valedictorian Says Duty Is Highest Aim - 1962

 

Valedictorian Says Duty Is Highest Aim

ILION - Using as his topic, "The Highest Calling - Duty," Roger Fortuna, Jr., valedictorian of the 1962 Ilion High School graduating class yesterday told the audience, "it is the obligation of duty we must faithfully discharge, whatever calling we may decide to follow."

Fortuna said, "as we commence to follow in the steps of former graduates, I seem to see a figure bent over a catechism pointing out the message, "To do my duty in that station of life unto which it shall please God to call me."

He continued, "search through the wide world of literature for a saying that better sets forth the true purpose of our being and you will find none so plain, none so sincere, none so dependable. All that is to be achieved, all that is to be suffered, the conquest of material things, the conquest of the inner self, ---- all are in that one word duty."

"Duty is but a blunt and homely word, curt and elemental bespeaking drudgery. It has no musical sound to commend it to the orator singing praises of the popular idol. It does not thunder on the tongue nor make the splash of Niagara. The highest heroism and the noblest self denial that spring from duty seem so common place as to be things that should be, the only things man can do."

The speaker continued, "To win success, fame, honor and glory is no unworthy incentive of man's efforts, but it is not the greatest. The desire for the approval of one's fellow creatures burns in the breast of every man and we cannot scorn it as unclean."

"When great action has been necessary, duty has been the inspiration that has aroused men and women to the great deeds that have marked progress of the human race."

"Duty to God, duty to country, duty to fellow-men, duty to home - these are the stepping stones to success." In closing, Fortuna urged his classmates to remember the words of the poet who said, "You cannot choose your battlefield, God does that for you; but you can plant a standard where a standard never flew."

Fortuna is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Roger A. Fortuna, 13 Cross St. and will be entering Georgetown University to study law.

 

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